“All water has a past and all sewage has a future.”
Those deep thoughts–and we’ll get back to them in a minute–came from a commencement speech this past spring. Picture proud parents, nervous students, and the usual pomp and circumstance. For all those involved, the joy of a task completed met an uncertain horizon.
The speaker, though, wasn’t one of …
Yup.
What does that Italian on the side of the car say?
"it's faster than a set of bleachers" (thanks to Alex Gelsomino for translating into Italian)
In the early 90s a spectator / local autocrosser told me he'd never race anything that slow; to which I replied "it's faster than a set of bleachers". I'm on my 38th year with the car and my 33rd season of racing it. I've never done better than 5th overall with the car and it's usually mid pack but it doesn't matter.
Just get get out there; I've autocrossed, rallycrossed, organized a stage rally, road raced, flagged corners, worked tech, wrote some articles and it's all fun as hell with loads of great people.
And never track something that you can't afford to break or damage, and an old Miata is just about the perfect "gateway drug."
Sign up with a group that provides instructors for novices/first timers. It'll push you up the learning curve more quickly, it will take a lot of guess work out of what to do, and overall the event will go more smoothly for you. My first track day was with Hooked on Driving and I think it was perfect for that first experience.
Please just don't be like me. Do NOT get immediately hooked and start heavily modifying vehicles between every dang event. You WILL spend more time learning how to fix broken E36 M3 than driving. Reliability is #1 since this hobby is no fun when your car is broke down. Driving a slow car slow is MUCH more fun than fixing a fast car in the paddock. Sadly after 14 years I still haven't learned my lesson (exhibit A:https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?2470075-Olemiss540-s-WAR-Machine-LS1-E36) but that is mostly due to the group of enablers I call best friends that I have met through this cursed hobby of ours.
Oh, yeah, there’s something to be said for following the KISS approach here.
Know how much downtime I’ve had in autocrossing my Miata the past three years? Like just the time spent swapping tires and doing the occasional oil change.
As an instructor, I loved teaching noobs. Especially with lower powered cars. We aren't impressed by your 'mods' list or how often you play Forza. Show up in your Focus wagon with Cooper tires and let's have a fun day. 
In reply to ddavidv :
Yup. I also enjoying working with the novices. Let’s concentrate on the basics: being safe, having fun, not getting lost, making friends and learning something new.
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